Conflicting IRQ's

I have noticed this strange problem in my setup for a while.... even since I added my VFD (serial) display.

I have an ASUS board, and it has worked well. I have a PCMCIA adaptor (Via ISA card) I also have 2 serial ports. 1 to a palm pilot or cell phone for mobil netaccess, the other to my vfd display.

It all works out to com 1 & 2 irq 3&4 then I think the pgs is set to com 3 IRQ 5 or something. I have played with it alot, tried changing them all around , I still get the same problems :

1. the vfd "flickers" the cursor jumps around , and it almost looks like its and lcd with a loose connection to the backlight. its not a loose connection. If I pause the player, the flicker stops, when I unpause it, the flicker comes back. the only way to stop the flicker is to reboot.

2. the GPS takes a REALLY long time to INIT / lock on to signal.

If I disconnect my VFD, the GPS locks on really quickly.

If I dosconnect the GPS, the flicker goes away.

I just dont understand how they could be causing a problem when they are all on different IRQ / Base add. / Com ports.

Im wondering if its something to do with the lcd plugin, ( I noticed it seemed to have a lot of bugs, maybe a memory leak??) I think the plugin is by Markus Zeuhinder ( or something that sounds like that)

I think Im going to try flashing the bios on the m-board.... I doubt that will help... but who knows.

This dosen't sound like a IRQ promblem. It almost sounds like one device is causing EM interference with the other. Try grounding the GPS reciver and the LCD. Also you can try physically seperating them as far as the cables will reach and see if that helps.

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Monger
ICQ-7207702

Monger
ICQ-7207702UPDATE: I moved farther north. Now its even too cold for the deer; only moose now

Hummm.... they are both grounded to the supply line..... I really doubt its EMI, specifcally because when I pause or start to shutdown the pc, the flicker stops. and if I enter the ocnfiguration mode of the plugin, the display clears, and displays "configuration" and it dosent flicker at all..... as soon as I resume playing songs, it starts the flicker......

The cable to the 2 serial ports are run next to each other, but they seem to work fine. The cable for the gps is run out of the front of the pc, and dosent go near the serial cable.